Soul Days
by SomeoftheFame
Summary: For some the choices we make define us. For some the path we take determines our fate. And for some death is only the beginning. Accepting OCs


**Soul Days**

I disclaim any rights to the Bleach franchise and all that it umbrellas.

**Note**: I've been really into OC stories lately and decided to start my own. I know not many really like them and think requesting OCs is a waste of time because of the type of submissions you get, but I love stories that take in characters from readers. It's a fun way to readers to invest in a story. Enjoy.

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Chapter One - The End

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The sun set on the horizon beyond a long abandoned elementary school. Its crumbling brick exterior and cracked pavement courts were bathed in the pallid pinks and lurid reds that remained in the sky with wispy shreds of clouds, wasted by the wind, lingering behind.

From the building's edge to the far side of the playground that ended in a high concave fence, overgrown with vines, were pieces of equipment that hadn't seen use in decades. Tetherball sets, monkey bars, basketball hoops, and swing sets all stood rusted in solitude while faded paint markings for hop-scotch lay forgotten on the blacktop, marred by the cracks of shifting plates.

Under cover of the building's shadow, one that would consume the entire area as the sun continued to dip away, several adolescents gathered around another and a cold piece of steel passed from hand to hand in an intimating fashion.

A young man placed his hand on the cylinder of the gun, flicked his wrist down and caused the chamber to whirl. Seemingly satisfied with the amount of clicking the revolver gave off, he slapped it back into place and promptly aimed it at their classmate's head.

"It's called Russian Roulette." he said as he pulled back the hammer and his index moved through the trigger guard.

There were four of them; one with his knees pressed to the ground as two others held his arms to keep him in place. The last was the gunman who playfully let his finger jitter over the trigger as he aimed at various body parts.

"Knee or thigh." he said as he pointed the gun at the blacktop and then raised his aim. "Gut or chest, shoulder or head. Maybe you'll get lucky and the bullet isn't in this shot."

Across the grounds sat a playground skeleton of a car with rust covered red metal bars bent into curves and circles to make up the basic shape of a vehicle, with two long sheets of metal to act as siding. It was once a popular recess stop for children to play in. Hiding behind a side piece, two boys were crouched, each with a view of the gun show.

"Okay, we definitely need to get out of here!" the taller of the two said with urgency.

"We have to help him." the other whispered back.

"Help him—Tadashi, we don't even know him!"

"If it were you you'd want someone to help you, right?" Tadashi asked.

"Yes, and if that day ever comes I know you'll be the first idiot to throw himself into the path of a gun for me." he said, but paused his ranting once he noticed Tadashi wasn't even paying attention. "You don't really think they'll shoot him, do you?" he asked and looked back out through the hole in the siding.

"No. Emiko and his gang are just bullies." Tadashi said. "They just want to scare him." he said to reassure himself.

_Click_

The sound was faint and distant, but both boys heard it. Their eyes strained on the group near the wall. The boy they had on his knees was visibly trembling now and the others were laughing.

Tadashi whipped around to his friend as he shifted in the car. "Aito, they could have shot him!" he hissed.

Aito threw his arms out and shrugged in a form of mock astonishment. "I know! Who would have thought that Emiko wasn't just all talk. Did you forget the time he kicked both our asses after he told us he was going to kick both our asses for a week straight? Hey, where are you going?" he asked once he realized Tadashi wasn't just moving around, he was moving to the exit, a small oval gap in the opposite side of the car.

"To stop them." Tadashi said as he squeezed through the hole, not made for anyone over the age of ten. He lost his balance once most of his body was out of the car and he fell onto his stomach, but quickly scrambled to his feet and darted around the auto, into open view.

"Are you insane?" Aito rasped from the exit. "Get back in here!"

Tadashi waved off his comment, even though it wasn't seen, and started to walk across the pavement before his pace quickened to a jog. "Emiko, what are you doing?" he asked once he reached the group.

"Dashi, what do you want?" Emiko asked with disgust in his tone as he leisurely waved the gun in Tadashi's direction. Emiko was a tall and lanky boy with a mop of greasy black hair and face scarred by acne.

Tadashi raised his hands instinctively and took a slow step back once the black eye of the revolver's barrel was staring at him. "Just let him go." he said and his eyes darted to the boy being held in place. He was wearing grey sweat pants with a dark patch spreading from his crotch.

"Not yet." Emiko said before he swung the gun back around to the original target. "We're playing Russian Roulette, he's only made it past one shot. He pissed himself right after I pulled the trigger and I'm wondering what he'll do if I pull it again."

Before Tadashi had a chance to speak there was another click. The boy shuddered and his breathing quickened, his trembling was so violent it was like a convulsion and his whimpers were audible now.

One of two holding the boy in place laughed. A large boy with buzz cut hair and a stomach that hung out the bottom of his shirt. "I think he's gonna cry."

Tadashi glanced to the remaining person, a girl with a tangle of brown hair and an overbite, who snorted at the former's comment.

"Okay that's enough." Tadashi said as he took a brave step forward. "You had your fun."

"We're just getting started." Emiko said as he readied himself for another shot. "That's two down, he's lucky." he said.

Just as Emiko raised the gun, Tadashi slammed into him.

Their shoulders hit first and the blow knocked Emiko off his feet. In the rush of the impact, and the boy's grunt, there was another click; empty round in the gun. Tadashi put all of his weight into Emiko and both boys hit the ground. Emiko rolled and latched onto the top of Tadashi's jacket before he shook him, harmlessly at first, but then Tadashi's head hit the pavement and for a second his body went limp.

"You want to play too, Dashi?" Emiko said with a mouth full of spit that sprayed Tadashi before he pulled up on the boy's jacket and slammed him back onto the blacktop.

Emiko shifted his weight from straddling Tadashi and the boy's arm shot up and the bottom of his palm connected with Emiko's jaw. Emiko's mouth snapped shut, his teeth digging up into the bottom of his tongue, he then reared back and groaned in pain before his head whipped from side to side.

The revolver. It broke free of Emiko's grip after he was hit and landed just a few feet away. Emiko stretched and his fingers scraped across the gun until he was able to get a solid hold of it.

Tadashi watched Emiko pick up the gun and grab it around the barrel as he tried desperately to force him off, but nothing worked before Emiko brought the butt of the gun around and smashed it into the side of Tadashi's head.

Tadashi's head jerked to the side on impact and then slowly wheeled back around to center. When he did Emiko shifted his position, still astride, and flipped the position of the gun to press the barrel against Tadashi's forehead.

"Is this what you wanted?" Emiko asked as he bit onto his lower lip. "Huh?" he asked as he prodded Tadashi in the brow.

Again, Tadashi's hand shot up, this time he hooked both of them into the pit under Emiko's arms and tried to force them up, but soon realized his mistake as Emiko forced his arms down and trapped Tadashi's hands. Tadashi tried to pull back, but his entire hand was held and pulling only hurt his wrists. Before he saw it coming the gun came back around and beamed him on the other side of his head.

He felt it strike the bone just a few inches away from his eye as he recoiled from the wallop. In his daze Tadashi realized the hold on his hands had slackened and his yanked them back before Emiko noticed. Free of the grip Tadashi pushed against Emiko's shoulder that faced him and managed to give the boy a good shove that caused him to tumble backwards onto his side.

Tadashi lunged for him and managed to get his hands around the revolver, and with a jerk, tried to pull it from Emiko's hands. But the boy's grip on it was strong and Tadashi only managed to pull Emiko's arms up, which brought Emiko into a sitting position.

Both upright they continued to struggle for the gun before Emiko threw his weight into Tadashi and knocked him back. Then they were rolling, struggling for dominance with four hands wrapped around the gun before it went off.

Instead of the click of an empty round, a _pop_ echoed across the playground, only slightly muffled by the casing of two warm bodies surrounding it.

All went stiff at the sound.

Aito shuddered, still in his hiding place, as the two boys stopped moving.

Emiko's friends let go of the boy they'd been tormenting, who dropped onto all fours, his eyes wide at the snarl of limbs before them.

Being on top, Emiko shifted into an vertical position and slowly untangled his legs from Tadashi's as he fell onto his backside. He looked to the gun, grip firmly in the palm of his hand and finger still on the trigger, the barrel giving off the heavy smell of gunpowder.

Tadashi remained still, his arms hovered just above the ground as a dark spot on his jacket began to pump out blood. Tadashi's breath seemed to become hitched in his throat and he sputtered out what little air he could take in.

"Emiko, what the hell?" the large boy asked and took a few steps away.

The girl had already begun to back away before she turned and made a full sprint towards the exit of the playground.

"I—It just went off." Emiko said quietly.

The boy waddled over and pulled Emiko to his feet. "We gotta get outta here." he said urgently as he started to pull Emiko away.

Both boys had trouble looking away as they started to walk and then jog from the playground. Their attention was divided to the point they didn't see Aito come crawling out of the car and race across the blacktop to fall next to Tadashi.

"Tadashi!" Aito cried as he pulled his friend's head into his lap. "Ta—oh." he said once his eyes found the wound. Tadashi's blood had soaked through the jacket and was slowly staining the area a deep red. "Hey you!" Aito called to the boy, still on all fours, a few feet away. "Do you have a phone?"

The boy's eyes were locked on Tadashi when Aito called out to him. He jerked back and his teary gaze met Aito before he shook his head.

"Dammit." Aito said, his voice cracking. "Come here. Come over here and help me take off his jacket, we have to—we have to stop the bleeding!"

The boy nodded and scrambled over to Tadashi's side and slowly unzipped his jacket, having to peel it away from his undershirt, glued together with blood.

Aito slowly pulled Tadashi's arms from the sleeves and let the boy ball up the jacket to press on the wound. Tadashi grunted and started to cry at the amount of pressure. His lips started to move in rapid and silent bursts as his eyes fixed on the sky.

Then Tadashi remained still, even though the boy was trying his best to stop the bleeding, enough of it had poured from him that his sides were warm with blood and a small puddle had started to pool under him. In the passing seconds as his breathing slowed he realized this is what dying felt like. His mind raced; he thought about all the things he wanted to say, and all the things he never got to say. Things he would never do again, things he'd never had the chance to do. As his breathing stopped altogether, two tears in solidarity rolled down his cheek.

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**Author's Note:** This will be an OC story and I'm hoping to use submitted OCs. This story will focus around Tadashi and his journey, the OCs I get will become people he meets along the way, friends and enemies, and the OCs will also have their own journeys and everything will come together nicely. Really I want to write about characters living their (after)lives, facing villains, finding new worlds, striving towards goals, so the plot will really be defined by the submissions. All spots are open, I'd like to have a cast of OC characters and include some of the canon characters as well, so we'll see what kind of submissions I get before I decide which captains to keep around.

**Submission Form **– If you're interested you can PM this to me or leave it as a review, whatever you like. You can submit more than one if you want.

**Name: **

**Race:** Shinigami, Arrancar, Quincy, Fullbringer, Visored, etc... Be whatever you want, I'll make a role for you in the story.

**Age: **Unless it's a human, approximate the age based off their appearance. Are you a Yachiru that looks 7? Or a Yamamoto that looks 70? (If they're a human give me their actual age)

**Gender:**

**Height & Weight: **Approximate, it's easier to visualize the character if I have their measurements instead of having just "slender with muscles" to go off of.

**Hero or Villain**:Just because you're a shinigami it doesn't make you a good guy, pick which side your character will favor.

**Physical Appearance: **Hair, eyes, face, body alterations (scars, tattoos, piercings), body build. For Arrancar/Visored characters include a description of the mask/mask remainder.

**Clothing: **Keep in mind if you're an Arrancar/Shinigami you already have a wardrobe, but mention alterations and changes your character made to them. Be as specific as you want.

**Background: **Where did your character come from? What happened in their life that led them to the start of the story? Where are they now (a child in the Rukongai who is going to the Shin'o Academy, an Academy graduate who just got admitted into the Gotei 13?) What are their goals? (This will help me build the plot around them and their interactions with other characters)

**Personality: **We're not going to have the Mary Sue talk.

**- **Shinigami/Visored

**- Zanpaktou Name: **In Japanese, please.

**- Zanpaktou Description: **Is it sealed or unsealed? What does it look like sealed? What kind of sword is it (shape-wise), what does the guard and hilt look like?

**- Release Command: **In English, please.

**- Shikai Description: **What does it look like and what can it do?

**- Bankai Description: **What is its name, what does it look like and what can it do? You can leave it blank if you don't want your character to have one.

**- Shinigami Position: **List their squad and what position they are in it.

**- **Arrancar

**- Espada, Fraccion, or Arrancar:**

**- Gran Rey/Cero Colour:**

**- Location of Hollow Hole:**

**- Espada/Arrancar Number: **If Espada, include tattoo location.

**- Aspect of Death: **You can make your own.

**- Zanpaktou Name: **In Spanish, please.

**- Zanpaktou Description: **What does it look like sealed?

**- Release Command:** In English, please.

**- Resurreccion: **What do they look like after they release? What kind of powers do they gain? What are their moves/attacks (Move names in Spanish please)?

- Quincy

**- Spirit Weapon: **What does it look like? What kind of powers does it give them?

- Fullbringer

**- Fullbring Power: **Name and ability, special moves?

**Other: **Here you can list all additional things about your character: hobbies, things they like or hate, what kind of people they like, quirks, special equipment they carry with them or use, things they always say, special talents (kido mastery, master swordsman, master technician, etc...)

I know this form is a lot, but I really want to make a great story with great characters, so if you're at all interested I hope you'll fill it out. And in case anyone was wondering, no this isn't my first Bleach story.


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